


Small

by SoDoRoses (FairyChess)



Series: LAOFT Extras [103]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Curtain Fic, Disney References, Domestic Fluff, Familial Relationships, Fluff, Gen, M/M, almost LITERAL curtain fic, autistic characters, genuinely good parenting, sensory issues, they shop for bedsheets and childrens clothes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-25
Updated: 2020-04-25
Packaged: 2021-02-23 03:40:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23838475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FairyChess/pseuds/SoDoRoses
Summary: A very big day, featuring Disney princesses, fitting rooms, and an abundance of orange, pink, and yellow.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil/Creativity | Roman/Logic | Logan/Morality | Patton, Logan Sanders & Linda Sanders (OFC), Patton Sanders & Linda Sanders (OFC), Romans Sanders & Linda Sanders (OFC), Virgil Sanders & Linda Sanders (OFC)
Series: LAOFT Extras [103]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1365505
Comments: 40
Kudos: 468





	Small

**Author's Note:**

> takes place the day after _Winterbloom/Introductions_ and so about ten years after the main storyline
> 
> For the prompt:
> 
> "i’m rereading Superstore and i Need a parallel piece, also in patton’s pov, where linda is upset and virgil dances with her to calm her down like. that whole parallel would just be [chefs kiss]" (from @airiervessel on discord)
> 
> The song used in the second section is Fields of Gold by Sting
> 
> thank you to to my friend Vivi (@trivia-goddess) for beta-reading and especially for repeatedly saving me by being smarter than spellcheck 😆

Patton had panicked a little when they’d checked Salvage Garden and found nothing, but he’d breathed a massive sigh of relief when they’d been lucky enough to find a booster seat in Linda’s size at the second thrift store in town.

Virgil could eyeball Linda’s measurements no problem, but the risk of sensory issues meant they pretty much _had_ to take her with them to buy her clothes. They’d also bought one dress and a pair of shoes at the thrift store, so she didn’t have to wear the clothes she’d been born in and already shredded – things she could stim with her claws were _also_ very high on the list – and then the four of them had bundled her into the car and drove out of town to Walmart.

Virgil had just barely winced – Patton was sure he’d never be _fond_ of large stores – but unless they wanted to go to half a dozen places to get everything on Logan’s _very_ long list, they were gonna have to suffer through it.

Virgil and Logan were in the back of the car with Linda cheerfully wiggling in the booster seat between them. She pointed out the colors of more distinctive trees along the highway, asking the names and why they were different colors and what kind of fruit they bore, and Logan patiently answered all her questions with the softest smile on his face every time Patton glanced at him in the rearview mirror.

Patton pulled into the parking lot, and Linda was out of her seat practically the moment the car stopped – Patton glanced between the startled looks on both Logan and Virgil’s faces and figured neither of them had unbuckled her, which was a little anxiety-inducing, but at least she seemed to understand she shouldn’t get out of the seat when the car was moving. She perched on her knees in Virgil’s lap, looking around the parking lot with her eyes wide.

“Not quite yet, Linny,” said Logan, “Can you come here?”

“Sure!” she chirped, climbing back over the seat into Logan’s lap instead, “What’s up?”

Roman pressed a fist to his mouth – Patton was pretty sure he was trying not to squeal.

“Well,” said Logan, fiddling with her hair, “First, I must assure you that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the way you look,”

Linda tilted her head curiously.

“Okay?” she said.

“Unfortunately,” said Logan, “We are not in Wickhills right now, and your appearance may draw… attention,”

“Oh!” said Linda, “Because I got fairy ears and-”

She wiggled her fingers.

“-And I’m sharp!”

Logan laughed a little.

“Yes, exactly,” he said, “So, if you are amenable, I am going to cast a glamour to make you appear a little more human,”

Linda screwed up her face in consideration.

“What’s… what’s a-nen… a-nen-a-mel mean?”

Logan turned a little pink.

“Right, you’re a preschooler,” he muttered, and Patton restrained a giggle, “Amenable. It means to be okay with something,”

“Oh. Sure!” she said.

Logan still seemed wary, even though Linda really didn’t look bothered.

“Would you like to see me do it on myself first?” said Virgil.

Linda’s mouth dropped into a perfect little ‘o,’ and she nodded enthusiastically.

Smiling, Virgil closed his eyes firmly – Patton blinked, and when he looked again Virgil was wearing his Virgil-but-to-the-left face, his ears and cheeks rounder and his eyes dark brown. Patton had never taken a picture to compare, but he always got the impression Virgil was also a touch less pale this way.

“Still okay?” said Logan.

Linda seemed confused by Logan’s hesitance, but she nodded anyway.

“Alright,” said Logan.

Logan reached up to tuck her hair behind her ears with both hands, and when they reappeared from behind his fingers they were round, the black tips gone. Taking her hands next, he squeezed them gently in his, and when he let go her nails looked pink and flat.

Linda squirmed around to look at herself in the rearview mirror.

“Oh, sweet!” she said, poking her own ear.

Roman burst into laughter – even Logan snorted, and his nerves seemed to evaporate.

“Still okay?” he asked anyway.

“Yup!” she said, “Yup-yup-yup. Time to get clothes?”

“Yes-indeed-y!” said Patton, booping her on the nose.

They all climbed out, Logan not bothering to put Linda down and instead just lifting her out with him, propping her on his hip. She swung her feet, still looking around at all the cars curiously, though she was blinking a little fast.

“Kinda bright,” she muttered, smooshing her face into Logan’s neck.

Frowning, Logan shifted her in his arms so it was easier for her to hide, kissing the top of her head like he thought he was sneaky at all. Patton grinned at him and Logan just rolled his eyes fondly.

Patton waved at the greeter as they walked in, and Roman pulled out Logan’s – again, very long – list, scanning it quickly.

“Okay,” said Roman, “Since we’re buying the whole Walmart-”

“I was being thorough,” Logan grumbled.

“Only teasing, my sweet,” said Roman fondly, “We should probably split up, or we’ll be here all day,”

Logan leaned over to look at the list.

“I would… prefer to choose the car seat myself,” he said.

“But you got one at the other store?” said Linda curiously.

“That was a temporary solution,” Logan told her, “It will be safer to buy you a new one,”

“Safety first,” said Patton, because it sounded like the kind of thing he should probably impress upon her as soon and as often as possible.

“I can get the things for the bedroom,” said Roman, “Are your color preferences the same as you told us this morning, princess?”

“Yes!” said Linda, “Orange, please. And pink and yellow,”

“Orange and pink and yellow,” said Roman, “Fabulous choices, I’ll do my very best,”

“Aaaaaand we can’t leave Virgil alone,” said Patton teasingly, “So us three will go start on clothes,”

“What?” said Virgil, frowning, “What do you mean, you can’t leave me alone?”

They all three turned to stare at him.

“Because if we leave you to your own devices you _will actually_ buy the whole Walmart and we all know it,” said Roman.

Flushing, Virgil crossed his arms with an embarrassed scowl.

“You’re exaggerating,”

“Barely,” said Logan flatly, but he was still smiling, “We find it endearing, there is no reason to take offense,”

Grumbling, Virgil looked only a little mollified when Patton kissed him on the cheek, and then a little bit more when he took Linda from Logan.

“Okay team, break!” said Patton brightly.

“Go team!” Linda cheered.

Patton dropped several kisses all over the top of her head in response and Linda beamed up at him.

“Do you need the list?” said Logan.

“No, honey, you keep it, I think clothes are pretty self-explanatory,” laughed Patton.

Logan gave Virgil a slightly suspicious glance, but he nodded – he and Roman leaned over and there was a quick circle of trading kisses, and then they left off for the back of the store. Patton grabbed a cart, and the three of them waded into the sea of children’s clothes.

“Okay, kiddo, do you have any idea how you feel about dresses versus pants?”

Linda screwed up her face in concentration, running her hand over a pair of basketball shorts and immediately frowning. Pulling her hand back, she shook it like she could get rid of the texture.

“Both are fine but not _those_ pants,” she said, sticking her tongue out, “They feel _zippy_ and I do _not_ like it,”

Virgil ran his thumb over the fabric and also made a displeased face.

“Yeah, that’s awful,” he muttered.

“Well, I don’t really know what you mean by ‘zippy,’ but we can do-”

Patton pulled the tag out to read it.

“-No rayon, no problem, pumpkin,”

So with one type of fabric eliminated, they sort of just started… grabbing things. They were gonna be here a while, because Patton knew she was gonna have to try all of it on in case there were strange seams or itchy tags, so he figured they might as well get as much variety in the first batch as possible.

They loaded up the cart with a mix of fabrics and styles, really anything Linda didn’t veto outright. They were probably going a little overboard – it wasn’t like they couldn’t come back if they didn’t find enough the first time – but Patton figured Logan would pare down Patton and Virgil’s enthusiasm when they met up again.

The one thing that Patton _really_ hadn’t thought through – and he was sure in the excitement nobody else had either – was that it was late September, and they were well past the back-to-school sales.

Which meant they were coming at the _beginning_ of the _Halloween sales._

So when they moved toward the dressing room, they passed a whole wall of costumes, satin and lace and tulle, a mix of superheroes and a smattering of animal costumes.

Linda’s eyes went round, wiggling in Virgil’s grip.

“Do I need fancy clothes for fancy parties?” she said excitedly, “Because those look _very_ fancy!”

Patton snorted.

“Those aren’t really- well they’re not _clothes_ -clothes, baby, they’re costumes,”

Linda reached out her hand, and Virgil shifted her closer to the rack; she ran her fingertips over the skirt of one of the costumes, a bright yellow and blue recreation of Snow White’s gown.

“What’s this one a costume of?” she said curiously.

“Snow White, from a movie,” said Virgil, watching her with just as much rapt attention and Linda was giving the dress, “A Disney princess,”

And that was the _wrong thing_ to say.

Linda brightened like a light bulb in a power surge, squirming in Virgil’s grip and sending her hands flapping rapidly.

“Pop calls _me_ princess!” she squealed, “What’s Disney? Can _I_ be a Disney princess?”

“Oh, gee,” said Patton, feeling a bit like he was being suffocated by cute feelings. He was sure they were leaving with a Halloween costume, and he was _also_ sure that was not on Logan’s list.

“How many are there?” said Linda, her head swiveling like she was trying to look at all the costumes at once, “Is that one a Disney princess, too?”

“Yes,” laughed Virgil, “That one’s Aurora. And you said you like yellow, right? The yellow one over there is Belle,”

“That’s so _neat!_ ” she squealed, “Can I have them?”

 _Them,_ she’d said, not _that one_ \- Patton saw Virgil’s face go impossibly soft, any resistance burning up as quick as flash paper, and knew he’d already missed the microscopic window to head off either one of them.

“Of course you can,” said Virgil softly.

Sighing fondly, Patton started putting costumes in the cart.

—

Picking the clothes out was definitely the easy part. Patton regretted grabbing so many – he’d thought the variety would encourage her to pick her favorites and not just stuff that was tolerable, but instead it just seemed to overwhelm her. They made only a small dent in the _actual_ clothes – because of course she’d tried on the princess dresses first – and Linda was clearly running out of patience.

“I don’t want any more clothes,” she said, frowning at him in the mirror of the dressing room.

Wincing, Patton kneeled down and nudged her to turn and face him, smiling soothingly.

“I’m really sorry, sweetheart,” he said, “We definitely got too many, huh?”

Linda nodded, wrinkling her nose.

“I won’t make you try on all the clothes in the cart,” said Patton, “But we do have to get you at least some long pants. We only have dresses, shirts, and shorts so far,”

“But I don’t _wanna,_ ”

“Oh, baby, I know,” said Patton, smoothing his thumb over her cheek, “But we live in the woods, honey, you really do need long pants. I don’t want you getting ticks and burrs,”

Linda made a very unhappy noise, and Patton felt his heart break a little.

“How about this,” he said, “If you find two pairs of long pants you like, we can be done,”

“ _All_ done?” said Linda, wary.

“Done trying on clothes,” said Patton, “You still need shoes and socks, but we can be done with clothes,”

Linda considered this.

“… Okay,” she grumbled.

Patton opened the door of the dressing room, and Virgil was already waiting on the other side – Patton couldn’t really be salty with him for eavesdropping.

“Hey, _liebling,_ ” said Virgil softly, stepping inside and shutting the door behind him, “Are you getting tired?”

She nodded, and Virgil held out his hands.

“I think I can help with that, if you let me,” he said, “Would you like me to try?”

Linda released Patton’s hand to dart forward and curl into Virgil’s grip. Sweeping her up off the floor, Virgil settled her head against his shoulder and then turned to Patton.

“Got a tune for us, songbird?” he teased quietly.

Blushing, Patton shoved him gently, snickering when Virgil made an over-exaggerated and clearly fake stumble. Linda giggled at the display, and Patton bopped them both on the nose.

“Sure,” he said.

He considered for a moment – something soft, soothing, but not too much or between the two of them they’d put her to sleep-

“ _You’ll remember me when the west wind moves, among the fields of barley…”_

Virgil turned into a spin, and for the first time in literal years, Patton’s voice almost faltered.

Virgil had his face pressed to the crown of Linda’s head, his eyes closed and his face serene – Linda let out a slow sigh, and it hit Patton all over again, like when he’d first seen her in the living room and he’d _known_ exactly who she was right down to his bones.

This was his _baby,_ their little girl, and his husband in their own sweet little fairy circle – this was his _life_ now, the first day of the _rest of his life,_ here in a run-of-the-mill Walmart dressing room like it wasn’t up there with his wedding and when Virgil woke up on the list of most significant things that had ever happened to him. To _anyone_ , as far as Patton was concerned – it was like the entire _universe_ had reoriented itself around her.

“… _You’ll forget the sun in his jealous sky, as we walk in fields of gold,_ ” he continued, and if Virgil noticed there was an extra layer of feeling-so-much-all-at-once in Patton’s voice, he didn’t react.

By the end of the first verse, Linda had lifted her head off of Virgil’s shoulder and was looking around – the little frown line between her eyebrows that looked just like a frustrated Roman’s had smoothed out, and her pout was gone.

“Better?”

“Yes, Vati,” she said softly.

“And you think you can put up with us through a few more clothes?” said Virgil, bumping her cheek with his knuckles.

Giggling, she nodded.

Patton and Virgil switched off – there wasn’t _really_ room for all three of them in the dressing room, not with the maneuvering it took to get her in the clothes.

The next pair Patton was pretty sure Linda didn’t even get all the way on before she let out a disgruntled “blegh” of distaste, but the second she said was fine. The third she hesitated over for several seconds.

“These,” she said finally.

“Are you sure?” Patton heard Virgil ask through the door, “I know you’re tired, but I don’t want you to say yes just to get it over with, _liebling,_ if there’s something you don’t like about them,”

“No, they’re good,” she said, “I like the, um, pictures on the knees,”

When they came out, Patton nearly squealed – the jeans did have embroidery on the knees, little bunches of flowers and scattered ladybugs.

“All good?” said Patton.

“Yup!” said Linda, “I got two pairs of long pants, just like you said,”

“Great!” said Patton, “Thank you very much sweetie, I appreciate it,”

Virgil helped Linda back into the dress she’d worn into the store, and Patton hung the – admittedly huge, he thought, wincing in sympathy for whatever employee they’d inconvenienced – stack of clothes they hadn’t picked on the return rack, putting the rest neatly in the cart, including the various princess dresses. Patton was pretty sure Linda was just small enough to fit in the seat of the cart, but of course, when the two of them came out Virgil didn’t look like he intended to put her down anytime soon.

They moved toward the back of the store and the children’s shoes – it was still warm enough she’d need sandals, and then at least one pair of sneakers, but they could probably put off anything else for another day.

As soon as they came around the clothing racks, they nearly ran straight into a clearly frazzled Logan and an amused Roman, toting their own cart full of bedroom and bath supplies and one very large box with a picture of a booster seat printed on the side.

“Are you okay?” said Virgil.

“I am adequate,” said Logan at the exact same moment Roman said “Oh, he’s losing it,” in a cheerful voice. Logan gave him an exasperated look.

“Honey,” said Patton.

“‘Losing it’ is an exaggeration,” said Logan, “I was- somewhat frustrated by the car seats, as they are sized by weight and Linda is much lighter than a human child of the same proportions,”

“Ah,” said Patton.

“It required more guessing than I was entirely comfortable with but I am as reasonably certain as I can be that this is a sufficient model,”

“On a lighter note,” said Roman, “I found orange bedsheets,”

Linda made a bright, delighted noise, lunging over to look in the cart. Virgil chuckled, moving closer so she could see better.

“Yay!” she cheered, “There are no orange princess dresses but I _did_ get yellow and pink ones which are very nice,”

Roman and Logan both raised their eyebrows. Virgil’s expression took on a distinctly sheepish edge, and Patton tried his best not to look obviously guilty.

“… Princess dresses,” said Logan.

“Yup!” said Linda, oblivious to the awkwardness, “Look, I got, um-”

She lunged again, and Virgil swayed to let her grab into the first cart with both hands.

“I got this all yellow one, and this yellow and blue one, and a pink one and this one is purple and this one is green!”

“Linda,” said Logan, clearly struggling, “These- these are costumes, not daywear,”

Linda just blinked at him, clearly not understanding.

“Look at you!” said Roman, absolutely beaming as he plucked Linda out of Virgil’s arms and swung her in a circle. “You haven’t seen a single Disney movie and you’re already a child after my own heart, princess, you have very good taste,”

“ _Roman,”_ said Logan.

“Oh, really, Jiminy Nitpick-It, come on,” said Roman, putting his face next to Linda’s and giving Logan an over-exaggerated pout, “How can you say no to this face? You can’t,”

Logan wavered, eyes flickering between the two of them, before he finally slumped and rolled his eyes.

“Very well,” he sighed, “I suppose it is not a particularly important social norm to inflict on her,”

Roman cheered, and Linda still looked pretty confused but she echoed him anyway. His face softening, Logan leaned across the gap to nuzzle her hair, and Patton’s heart swelled all over again.

“Let’s see,” said Roman enthusiastically, “Belle, Snow White, Aurora and Rapunzel and Tiana – what do you think, V, Sleeping Beauty first when we get home?”

Patton snorted, and Virgil groaned in embarrassment.

“Sounds great to me,” laughed Patton, “And then we can watch Beauty and the Beast; everybody loves a bookworm,”

He batted his eyelashes at Logan, who flushed a pretty pink and elbowed him gently.

“And of course, who could forget Snow White, making friends with all the woodland creatures with her entrancing voice-”

“ _Roman,_ ” giggled Patton.

Linda’s head swiveled between all of them, her eyes narrowing.

“Are you hitting on each other?” she said warily.

Logan _instantly_ burst into laughter, covering his mouth with his hand even though it didn’t make a lick of difference. Roman gaped at Linda, betrayed, and Patton pointlessly hid his own snickering in Logan’s shoulder.

Well. In Patton’s opinion, the first day of the rest of their lives was going _pretty damn great._

**Author's Note:**

> you can also find me on tumblr at @tulipscomeinallsortsofcolors where i would be happy to talk about my precious bocat LAMP child for _literal hours_ if you have ANY desire to know more about her


End file.
